In her first week in the job, the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is in the thick of high stakes diplomacy surrounding the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week. Australia has a leading role this year, holding the presidency of the Security Council just as the removal of Syria's chemical weapons and the chance to do something about Iran's nuclear program loom large.

Transcript

TIM PALMER: In her first week in the job, the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is in the thick of high stakes diplomacy surrounding the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week.

Australia has a leading role this year, holding the presidency of the Security Council just as the removal of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal and the chance to do something about Iran's nuclear program loom large.

North America correspondent Jane Cowan is at the UN in New York and a short time ago I asked her how the new Foreign Minister had approached her agenda.

JANE COWAN: Well, Tim, already it's been a whirlwind. She's had back-to-back meetings with her counterparts from countries including Papua New Guinea, and she has met with Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, where she acknowledged ahead of time that Australia's campaign to stop the boats would certainly be on the agenda.

This is a significant year for Australia here because it has the hard won seat on the Security Council that was secured, remember, after a diplomatic blitz last year.

And now, as it happens, the rotating presidency of the Security Council has fallen to Australia just as this meeting convenes, which means, for instance, if there is a Security Council meeting this week on Syria, then Julie Bishop could well find herself chairing it, including any chemical weapons related vote if it gets to that.

Let's have a listen to what Julie Bishop said on Syria.

JULIE BISHOP: In terms of priorities, obviously Syria will be uppermost in many people's minds, and there will be a significant debate around Syria - the three elements. First, the use of chemical weapons and what we can do to secure and eliminate those weapons.

Secondly, the humanitarian effort in Syria. Australia is taking a lead in finding a resolution, hopefully, for some further humanitarian aid for the conflict in Syria.

But also, the overall political solution, and urging other nations to come together for a Geneva II conference.

TIM PALMER: Well ahead of any conference like that, Jane, what are the prospects for something happening in the UN with the United States driving the pace on Syria?

JANE COWAN: No Security Council meeting on Syria is planned for this week. But it certainly could happen, and if it does, obviously it will take precedence over all the week's other business.

The efforts to make sure that Syria honours the deal that it agreed to in Geneva to get rid of its chemical weapons are currently in a kind of a dual track process involving both the organisation for the prevention of chemical weapons in the Hague that is nutting out the technical details of how to go about removing the chemicals in the middle of a conflict.

But also there is this push for the resolution in the Security Council. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has been saying that there needs to be a tough resolution passed this week, with punitive measures to deter Syria from reneging.

But privately, Tim, the US is said to have largely now conceded that a UN-backed threat of force is virtually unachievable due to Russian resistance. But the Obama administration is still obviously expected to keep that option of unilateral force on the table.

TIM PALMER: Nonetheless, the diplomacy on Syria has also, it seems, led to a thaw in some diplomacy between the United States and Iran. Very tiny steps, in terms of embargoes and some prisoners released in Iran. But there could be a much bigger step at the UN, some are suggesting - a meeting between the two presidents.

JANE COWAN: That's, Tim, what everybody is keeping an eye out for. Whether there is contact between Barack Obama and Iran's new moderate president Hassan Rouhani. Because if the two do meet, even on the sidelines, it would be the first time that a US leader has acknowledged an Iranian president face-to-face since Jimmy Carter met the Shah back in 1977.

It's unlikely that there will be a sit-down for a formal conversation. What's more likely is that the two might interact in passing. But even a handshake in a corridor would be huge news. An exchange of pleasantries now could serve as an icebreaker that's helped set the stage for another meeting.

And there certainly is some hope that this new moderate leader has been making friendly overtures to the West and signalling perhaps a willingness to engage in fresh talks, and even perhaps enter into some kind of agreement over the future of the country's nuclear program.

But it has to be said that Israel of course remains very sceptical and the Israeli prime minister has been calling Rouhani a wolf in sheep's clothing and warning, even now, that a deal with Iran could be a trap similar to the one that Benjamin Netanyahu says the West fell into with North Korea.